Hi guys,
It's been a couple of busy weeks since my trip to China including a birthday weekend in Singapore, but I've finally got around to looking through the photos and a few will be posted below.
Clubhouse(s)
We used three different clubhouses during our visit. They are all very clean and very large! there are regular shuttle buses between all locations and the longest we had to travel was about 30 minutes. Your clubs are given a barcoded tag and all you have to do is tell the caddy master which course you are playing next and your clubs miraculously appear. If I'm honest the atmosphere was a little sterile and as one would expect in China very regimented, but overall very efficient.
Courses
We played six courses in five days which was pretty tiring even if we were using buggies. you aren't allowed to leave the path so your caddy has to drag clubs from the bag to the ball every shot. I think the most I saw being carried was six clubs as the player couldn't tell what sort of lie he had!!! For the most part the caddies, who are all women, were very knowledgeable about the courses and for me got my distances pretty much dialled in after a couple of holes. They spoke pretty good English and on the hole were great fun.
Generally the courses were immaculate although we found ourselves behind some of the green keeping staff as the cut fairways. Unfortunately on the Vijay course they were coring the fairway so it looked as though it had just been ploughed. this of course didn't allow for much forward movement when it started rolling.
Norman
This was easily the hardest course I have ever played. The rough was 18 inches high so if you went left or right then you had a problem, exacerbated by the danger signs everywhere warning of cobras (the snake not the clubs!!). I saw one small snake, but one of my buddies saw a 2m long snake that slithered over a wall pretty fast when it saw the buggy coming.
The course is definitely in two sections. The front 9 is relatively flat, whereas the back 9 goes up in to the mountains. We were all a little over excited and none of us really got a handle on the course.
Faldo
Even though I didn't play very well on this course, despite its 118 Slope, I really enjoyed it as it reminded me of England. Although a lot of fun we found that some of the holes were just a little bland. The signature hole, Par 3 to an island green, was a lot of fun. I unfortunately went in the bunker and then skinned it straight in to the lake! The last three holes cost me dear as I dropped 12 shots.
Vijay
We were all a little disappointed with this course. It just didn't really grab the imagination as some of the others did in fact of all the courses that we played this is the one I don't really remember.
Ozaki
This was our favourite course. It was interesting and testing at the same time and always made you think that you could do it if you could just keep your concentration. Again in immaculate condition. I would definitely recommend this course to anyone who is planning to go there. Our golfers ranged from 10 index to 24 and everyone had fun. I hit 92 on this course.
Annika
This was my best round of the week (85). Up in the mountains, nearly all of the holes are either uphill or downhill and it's a good thing they have buggies. This course definitely improved as it went on and I started to finally hit the ball the way I wanted to! Maybe because I only took one photo and concentrated on my golf for a change!
Olazabal
This course starts in the mountains and finishes in front of the clubhouse. It has over 150 bunkers. This is another course that I would play again It was in very good condition and the greens were pretty true. Again we were following greenkeepers that were putting sand in the greens etc which caused the green speed to vary. the signature hole is pretty spectacular - a Par 5 round a lake. See the photo below although it doesn't really do it justice.
Signature Hole
Summary
This was a very good trip. The hotel was comfortable and Wi-Fi was free which allowed me to Skype home every day. The courses ranged from 118 - 145 so there were some definite tests for golfers of all levels. If I have one gripe is that the scorecards and course guides are full of errors and therefore useless. They also seem to be aware of this and are still selling them regardless. At $6 a go that seems very bad and is not in keeping with the efficiency of the rest of the operation.
It's a long way to go to play golf, but to play six different courses in 5 days, all designed by famous golfers, where else can you do that?
It's been a couple of busy weeks since my trip to China including a birthday weekend in Singapore, but I've finally got around to looking through the photos and a few will be posted below.
Clubhouse(s)
We used three different clubhouses during our visit. They are all very clean and very large! there are regular shuttle buses between all locations and the longest we had to travel was about 30 minutes. Your clubs are given a barcoded tag and all you have to do is tell the caddy master which course you are playing next and your clubs miraculously appear. If I'm honest the atmosphere was a little sterile and as one would expect in China very regimented, but overall very efficient.
Courses
We played six courses in five days which was pretty tiring even if we were using buggies. you aren't allowed to leave the path so your caddy has to drag clubs from the bag to the ball every shot. I think the most I saw being carried was six clubs as the player couldn't tell what sort of lie he had!!! For the most part the caddies, who are all women, were very knowledgeable about the courses and for me got my distances pretty much dialled in after a couple of holes. They spoke pretty good English and on the hole were great fun.
Generally the courses were immaculate although we found ourselves behind some of the green keeping staff as the cut fairways. Unfortunately on the Vijay course they were coring the fairway so it looked as though it had just been ploughed. this of course didn't allow for much forward movement when it started rolling.
Norman
This was easily the hardest course I have ever played. The rough was 18 inches high so if you went left or right then you had a problem, exacerbated by the danger signs everywhere warning of cobras (the snake not the clubs!!). I saw one small snake, but one of my buddies saw a 2m long snake that slithered over a wall pretty fast when it saw the buggy coming.
The course is definitely in two sections. The front 9 is relatively flat, whereas the back 9 goes up in to the mountains. We were all a little over excited and none of us really got a handle on the course.
Faldo
Even though I didn't play very well on this course, despite its 118 Slope, I really enjoyed it as it reminded me of England. Although a lot of fun we found that some of the holes were just a little bland. The signature hole, Par 3 to an island green, was a lot of fun. I unfortunately went in the bunker and then skinned it straight in to the lake! The last three holes cost me dear as I dropped 12 shots.
Vijay
We were all a little disappointed with this course. It just didn't really grab the imagination as some of the others did in fact of all the courses that we played this is the one I don't really remember.
Ozaki
This was our favourite course. It was interesting and testing at the same time and always made you think that you could do it if you could just keep your concentration. Again in immaculate condition. I would definitely recommend this course to anyone who is planning to go there. Our golfers ranged from 10 index to 24 and everyone had fun. I hit 92 on this course.
Annika
This was my best round of the week (85). Up in the mountains, nearly all of the holes are either uphill or downhill and it's a good thing they have buggies. This course definitely improved as it went on and I started to finally hit the ball the way I wanted to! Maybe because I only took one photo and concentrated on my golf for a change!
Olazabal
This course starts in the mountains and finishes in front of the clubhouse. It has over 150 bunkers. This is another course that I would play again It was in very good condition and the greens were pretty true. Again we were following greenkeepers that were putting sand in the greens etc which caused the green speed to vary. the signature hole is pretty spectacular - a Par 5 round a lake. See the photo below although it doesn't really do it justice.
Signature Hole
Summary
This was a very good trip. The hotel was comfortable and Wi-Fi was free which allowed me to Skype home every day. The courses ranged from 118 - 145 so there were some definite tests for golfers of all levels. If I have one gripe is that the scorecards and course guides are full of errors and therefore useless. They also seem to be aware of this and are still selling them regardless. At $6 a go that seems very bad and is not in keeping with the efficiency of the rest of the operation.
It's a long way to go to play golf, but to play six different courses in 5 days, all designed by famous golfers, where else can you do that?
